A Study in Thaumaturgy
by ColossalSpaz
Summary: Like many oc's, Alice led a normal-if not shitty-life. That was until she died and was reborn into the Harry Potter world, in one of the most ancient magical families. Now she has to deal with knowing that she has to go back to the wizard equivalent of high school as well as try to survive an upcoming war that she doesn't give a shit about. AU. Rebirth Story. Harry/oc.
1. Prologue-I hate Mondays

**Disclaimer:** I most definitely do not own Harry Potter. I also don't own any borrowed material from the Nasuverse or the anime/manga: Psyren,Kuroshitsuji, or Dantalian no Shoka. As always, the cover image doesn't belong to me, I got it off of google. This disclaimer applies to the whole story.

**Pairings: **Harry/Dalian(oc), George/Luna, Hermione/Fred, Ron/Lavender, Ginny/Neville, Sirius/Sakura(oc), Remus/Tonks, Charlie/May(oc), Draco/Daphne

**Warning:** Becomes AU later on, but still retains events from the books.

**Rating: **Rated M just in case.

**Beta/Co-writer:** Divider

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**A/N: **I'm sorry to say that there will be very little British slang in this story. This is mainly due to the fact that I am not British, hell I'm not even American (though I do live in the U.S.)And I don't want to butcher their culture. I will also be making muggle technology a bit more advanced, so bewareee~That being said, I hope you enjoy this story, I know I enjoyed writing it.

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**Chapter 1: **Prologue-I hate Mondays

Alice liked to think that she was going places.

Her whole life she'd been pitied for being an orphan. She fucking hated pity. Ragged clothes, second-hand books, and duct-taped glasses had labeled her the school's charity case, giving her awkward looks as if they had no idea how she'd made it that far. Yeah right, she might've been dirt poor but that didn't mean that she was a dumbass, and she'd made sure to show them. While the assholes dicked around, yammering about the newest fuck-up in town, she had stuck to studying and working at her shitty minimum-wage job.

Sure, she had no friends and barely any for herself except for the hour or so of break-time which she spent reading. It was mostly the _Harry Potter _books though, since they were the only interesting books she was able to find in the orphanage's closet-sized library. It did give her a sick sense of satisfaction to hear the stuck-up assholes talk about the movies as if they were the shit, when she knew that the books were way better.

It pissed her off that they didn't even bother to look at her, and so she'd flipped them all the bird when she walked up to get her high school diploma. That'd show them.

Yeah, life was good. Sure, she was a twenty year-old with a social life that basically consisted of her yelling at her bills to fucking disappear(they didn't listen), but at least she did make it to college and she had even just recently rented an apartment. That did count for something, right?

She didn't really get an answer for that seeing as she woke up to a noise at three in the morning, on a fucking Monday, just to get shot by a burglar.

Funny thing was, the moving van was a day late.

* * *

She woke up in a dark place; a dark, cold, and cramped place. She could sometimes hear voices as if from far away. She couldn't even tell what they were talking about, but god did she love those voices. It was way better than hearing herself think all day.

Then came the day when shit hit the fan. Everything was normal until whatever the hell she was in started to push her down. It got even worse when she got stuck. But it was nothing compared to when she literally felt herself slide out of a hole.

'_No, no, no,'_ she thought, _'I will do fucking anything to get out of this'_

"It's a girl!"

'…Aw, hell no!'

**A/N: **Did you guys like it? I haven't seen many HP fics dealing with the whole reincarnation thing and I thought I'd give it a try. It's a bit short, but it is just a prologue after all so expect way longer chapters in the future.


	2. The House Of Dantalian

**A/N:** First Person Point of View from here on.

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**Chapter 2: **The Ancient and Most Noble House of Dantalian

Life's a bitch. No, seriously. I'm not even shitting you. I mean, I just had to experience the miracle of birth from a baby's point of view. Not pleasant at all.

But life just had to have something against you when not only did it make you go through that, but also sent you to the Harry-Motherfucking-Potter universe. Well damn, I should die more often.

I bet you're wondering how the hell I even found out about this. I'll tell you how. I didn't just suddenly wake up next to another baby with a lightning bolt scar on his forehead, or even get taken away by Dumbledore. I actually found out from eavesdropping on the "adults' "conversations. And when you hear the words wizarding world, muggles, and Voldemort after finding out that you've been reborn, well, it doesn't take much to put two and two together.

My new parents decided to name me Dalian Dantalian. Nice name, sounded determined. They actually turned out to be pretty cool about the whole "toddler behaving like a grown up" parts like me reading as soon as I could make my limbs agree with my brain. Though it probably had to do with the fact that the Dantalians turned out to be a magical family full of prodigies who specialized in researching magic. Yeah, go figure.

I guess I do bitch a lot about my situation, but frankly I actually liked it. My parents were kickass. My mother, Rin Dantalian, became the head of the Dantalian family after the death of my grandfather when she was still attending Hogwarts. I'm not talking about the whole getting a job and supporting the family type of shit here. The woman actually walked into a meeting filled with all the old geezers of the clock tower-the most prestigious research society in the wizarding world-and ripped them a new one. At the end of the day she got her point across, nobody was going to take the family's legacy away.

Then there was dad. While I admired my mom and even secretly wanted to be like her, I got along with my dad the best. Asuka Yoshina was a four-eyed, muggle born wizard whose guts were hated by Rin Dantalian. God knows how the two got together; it was probably because of Asuka's workaholic nature. He would actually go days without eating or sleeping when he really got into his Astronomy stuff. Thank goodness Rin was there or he would've probably killed himself. He was pretty mild mannered, unlike Rin, but he wasn't a pushover. He was also really lazy when he didn't have any work, and we ended up playing around or just gazing at the sky most of the time.

It was fantastic to live with them. They taught me how to just let go of all the stress and enjoy learning. Yeah, that's right; I became a downright nerd in here. Even more than in my past life seeing as I actually studied for fun instead of to survive and to show up some idiots. It was hard not to when that was all your family ever did. And the library, that beautiful endless room filled with all the knowledge that they had written down over the years was gorgeous.

They really didn't hold back when they built the damn thing. The _Bibliotheca Mystica de Dantalian_ was a piece of work all-right. It went back to the time of Merlin and had about a whopping 900,666 magical books in there. It was the most important heirloom in the family's history, and you bet your ass that the Ministry of Magic wanted to get its grubby paws on it.

Having all of these study materials did prove to be extremely useful, especially knowing that the snake bastard was going to come back to life. I had thought about the whole "I can change the future" bit that came with having read all the books and being transported into them. Technically speaking, I held the key to everyone's future in my tiny hands. I'll give you a minute to imagine a young child giving the most evil, maniacal laugh to have ever been heard. It was _that_ empowering. But I decided that trying to save everyone would be too much work and would probably cost me my sanity. Yeah, I was selfish, but I wasn't about to waste _my _second chance at life in trying to save everyone. As long as my family was alright I didn't really give a shit. I didn't have a saving people thing.

It was a bit freaky to be a toddler again. I'd grown a lot, both mentally and physically, by the age of five. Dalian Dantalian had long pitch-black hair with a tint of purple in it that Alice didn't. I couldn't find any similarities between the two, except for their love for candy (God did I love sweets) I didn't really want to forget about Alice. Sure, my life had been shitty back then, but it hadn't been worthless. So I decided to keep her rough personality within Dalian's. Sure, my family was pretty laid-back, but we were still a bunch of nobles. I had been taught how to look, act, and speak like a lady. Well fuck that.

The first three years of my new life were painfully dull. I had very little to do but drink milk and sleep. I never thought I'd miss the cheap bread and eggs I ate religiously in my past life, but there you have it. Also, it was downright embarrassing having to regain control of my bowels. Diapers are a great and terrible thing.

Funny thing though, you'd think that since I was technically a twenty-five year-old woman by now I would be more mature and sensible. Well think again. I was actually very childlike when I wasn't studying. It was something that a lot of people linked to my parents, but really came from the fact that I was really out to enjoy my childhood, I'd wasted it once and I wouldn't make the same mistake again. The problem lay in adjusting from a 25-year old body to a pint-sized one. I constantly took too long steps or overextended my reach. I could barely wait for my growth spurt. My body could hold out on the puberty though, I didn't need to experience that shit again.


	3. Familiar

**A/N:** Pictures of the Dantalian family are up on my profile.

**Chapter 3:** Familiar

I ended up really liking being the heiress to the Dantalian household. It wasn't like anything I'd imagined; our family was unorthodox even by wizard standards. We were seen as stingy and even stuck up. This was mainly due to our family's policy of not sharing our amassed knowledge. Not even a drop of it. Our ancestors had made sure that we would keep up the tradition by creating a family crest which was magically engraved on the members of the family when they were born. This crest took a short time to develop, but it only developed if you had obtained it during birth, and only a person with the complete crest could enter the family library. Like a key. Pretty smart, huh?

We didn't really take sides during the wars either. Something which I was grateful for. It would've been a pain in the ass to have been born to a "dark" or "light" family. I liked grey better. That certainly didn't earn us any brownie points with Voldemort's followers, or the members of the order for that matter. There was a **lot** of tension between the Malfoy, Weasley, and Dantalian families. But most of the tension with the Weasley family was because my mom and Mrs. Weasley didn't seem to see eye to eye. We were pretty friendly with each other otherwise, but even then we had the unspoken understanding that Dantalians didn't take sides and Weasleys followed Dumbledore. At least that meant that I got to meet the Weasley kids sometimes.

The magical community didn't really know how to deal with us. We were civil and very high up in the political ladder. It got me to meet a lot of the magical families like the Tonks, Potter, Black, Peverell, and Zabini families. But even if we socialized, there was still the fact that we kept mostly to ourselves; like I said, we didn't take sides so we couldn't be too friendly with a group. That, and the fact stands that we were the most openly squib-loving family in all of magical history, mostly because my aunt turned out to be born as one.

My mom's sister, Sakura Dantalian, was the sweetest person you would meet. She was very soft-spoken and had an air about her that made you want to be a better person just to see her smile. She was fun too, we'd sneak around the house a lot in order to steal sweets from the kitchen (we were both addicted to sugar), and she'd cover up a lot for me when I got in trouble. She had even permanently dyed her hair purple when she was young to match her Dantalian eyes. Sakura-or Saku-chan as I called her-was a herbologist with a knack for potions, and even knew a bit about healing. Mom had told me that when my aunt had found out about being a squib she'd been sad since she had always liked to collect ingredients from the forest surrounding our manor to watch my grandpa brew potions. But my grandparents and my mother had supported her, and they'd eventually pulled through by creating new ways for her to transfer her dormant magic to her potions, mostly by dissolving a stone or jewel, designed by my mom and grandpa, that had absorbed her magic during the night.

All of our servants were squibs as well. I use the term "servant" loosely though, they were adopted into our family and had decided to stay and help guard the library and its surrounding grounds. There was Finnian; our gardener. He was a strawberry-blond with dark eyes who was easily flustered. I liked to tease him and our klutzy, red-headed maid named May. Our cook's name was Bardroy, he was a badass blond man who had served in a muggle war and had really weird ways of cooking; not that I was complaining, his cooking was heavenly. The coolest thing was that we had a butler, sure he wasn't British but he had lived in Britain long enough to have adopted the accent. His name was Tanaka, and you didn't want to mess with him. The others and I used to joke that he had a method of silent killing, I'm not sure how much of it was a lie.

I had actually gotten a bit curious about our names. I mean, I knew that my dad was Japanese and that he and mom had met in Japan, but why did my mom and my aunt have Japanese names? That actually led to the coolest discovery I'd made about our house so far (I was only five, of course I hadn't explored _everything_ yet) It turned out that the Dantalian manor moves around the world, pulled to places depending on how high their magic concentration was . Apparently there had been a lot of growing tension in Japan between demons-yokai-and wizards, and the manor had moved there when the fight had escalated a bit. Nothing too serious happened seeing as some law or other had been passed, but the manor had stayed there and my mom and my aunt had been born there to a mother who had a thing for Japanese names.

* * *

_Late 1983, 5 years old_

My day had been pretty good so far. I had gone with Saku-chan to babysit the Weasley kids while Arthur and Molly went out to do whatever the hell it is that they do, I never cared that much about that. She and my dad actually got along pretty well with the Weasleys; Arthur and my dad would end up talking nonstop about the muggle works and my dad's latest project. It sucked that I couldn't spend time with Charlie and Bill since they were off at Hogwarts with Tonks, but I at least had the twins (we were the same age) to play with. All that the three year-old Ron did was follow us around. Foreshadowing much?

We ended up getting back home in the afternoon, only to meet the weirdest lady ever, and that was saying something seeing as I'd seen some pretty weird people when I visited Diagon Alley. She had this huge hat with a stuffed vulture on it and a large purse. She looked very strict and domineering, kinda like the strict old nannies they show in cartoons sometimes. But she turned around to look at us and I saw that she had the cutest kid in her arms. It only served to add to the look.

"There you are!" she exclaimed with the tone of someone who you shouldn't mess with, "I've been waiting for someone to show up for ages. How rude, you people pester me to visit you with Neville and you don't even have the decency to show up on time!"

I gave her the most threatening glare I could muster (Somewhere between indignant puppy and offended bunny on the threat scale), no one talked to my Saku-chan like that!

We heard footsteps and turned to see my mom at the entrance to the manor with her arms linked through my dad's.

"Do pardon our lack of hospitality, Mrs. Longbottom", she said unfazed by the older woman's attitude, "You seem to have arrived a bit earlier than expected, half an hour in fact. So let us retire to my study."

'_Neville's grandma!?' _My memory really wasn't reliable for keeping track of the Potterverse; I would have to start writing these things down.

She was about to start complaining, but thankfully my dad intervened.

"Why don't you leave little Neville with Sakura and Dalian? I'm sure they'll get along fine" he said, shooting me a wink to let me know he was getting her away from me. Thank God, Merlin, whatever.

The woman reluctantly handed Neville to my aunt giving us one last look before disappearing down the hallway that led to my mom's study.

My aunt looked at me and said softly "Forgive her, her son and his wife are in St. Mungos. They've been there for about two years now", she looked pained as she spoke" Frank and Alice were, and still are, some of our closest friends. Your parents and I are still working on how to remove the aftereffects from the Cruciatus curse."

Ah, I remembered that. I think it was Bellatrix and Bartimaeus Jr. who did it. Maybe someone else but really, it was just briefly mentioned in the books.

Neville looked a little shy. Okay; he looked downright terrified to be left with some weird purple haired girls. All I really remembered was that he was the poor chum who was always overlooked; and that he became a herbology professor, so that meant that he liked, or grew to like, plants. Perfect.

I decided to do us all a favor and asked "Saku-chan, can we show Neville the greenhouse?"

Her mood did an automatic 360 and she started bouncing on the spot from excitement. Jeez, you'd think she'd won the damn lottery from the look on her face.

"That's a great idea!" she exclaimed, "C'mon, I'll carry Neville. Ohhh, you're just going to love this!"

* * *

Neville turned out to be a pretty nice kid once I got him out of his shell. You'd be surprised at the wonders that some Gillyweed and a quick swim in a clear lake can do to a budding friendship. He ended up getting really into Saku-chan's explanation of how the plant worked. for a three year-old anyways, and didn't even want to leave at the end of the day.

We ended up making arrangements to have him visit at least twice a week for herbology lessons from Saku, as well as a few hours of relaxation. The poor boy really needed to get out more, that old hag would drive him crazy one of these days.

"Are you ready to summon your familiar?" asked my aunt.

Oh shit! I'd completely forgotten to panic about that. Oh well, too late for that.

I just looked at her with a serious expression until it broke into a grin, "Hit me with it."

* * *

That night we all gathered in the summoning room, and by all of us I mean _all _of us. Even mom's familiar, a regal pitch-black leopard named Ajax (Though the regal part kind of wore off when said familiar took you for a ride on his back every now and then) My parents had set everything in order after the Longbottoms' visit and all that was left now was for me to recite the chant I now knew by heart in front of an intricate summoning circle.

Well, it was now or never.

"_Let silver and steel be the essence._

_Let stone and the archduke of contracts be the foundation._

_Let red be the color I pay tribute to._

_Let rise a wall against the wind that shall fall._

_Let the four cardinal gates close._

_Let the three-forked road from the crown reaching unto the Kingdom rotate._

_Let it be filled. Again. Again. Again. Again._

_Let it be filled fivefold for every turn, simply breaking asunder with every filling."_

I stared nervously at the circle as a huge red cloud started to form around it. Sure, I had complete confidence in my abilities but I couldn't help but to wonder if I'd screwed it up. So you can imagine my huge relief when the cloud finally went away, and I was finally able to see what my familiar looked like.

Except there was no familiar.

All that was left in the circle was a skull.

"What the f-"

"I AM ALIIIIIIVEEEEE"

We all had to do a double take as the previously unmoving skull rose from the ground and gave a shout of happiness.

"Yes! I knew some sucker would bring me back!" he started babbling, only to stop when he looked down to where his feet should be,"Awwww shit."


	4. No Rest for the Wicked

**A/N: **More on Dalian's childhood on this chapter. Don't worry though; she should start attending Hogwarts in the next chapter, though you have to remember that she's the twin's age so Harry won't come in for a while. I can't wait though, my beta and I have big plans for this story. That said, thanks for all the favorites, follows, and reviews guys; they really do inspire me to write.

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**Chapter 4: **No Rest for the Wicked

"Bwahahaha! I like this guy!" I laughed; the skull seemed like a cool guy. I really did hope he was my familiar. I could scare the shit outta the Hogwarts kids when I went there. Plus, it would suck if all those magical jewels and metals had gone to waste.

"Gee, thanks. I'm glad my problems amuse you." He commented sarcastically, "Name's Morte by the way…Morte the flying skull, it's got a nice ring to it. And I guess you're my new master."

"Yup! I'm Dalian, heiress in training." She replied, not minding the skull floating around her while he examined her.

"Whoa! That's so cool Dalian, now you can start your training and bloom into a new flower~" gushed Finny.

"No way! She'll bloom into a mountain full of flowers!" exclaimed May, unconsciously knocking over and breaking a vase.

"Calm down guys," spoke Bardroy, "I think we can all agree that she'll grow up to be something, but she needs her ceremonial gifts first."

"That's right," dad agreed, watching in amusement as May made an exaggerated apology to mom, who was casting a _reparo _to fix the vase. "I guess I'll go first since your mother seems busy."

At this, Saku-chan approached us with Tanaka following right behind. They were both carrying a package each; I guess it was to make it look more formal.

"Aaah, I really like this part," said Morte, "You never really know what the parents will come up with for a gift."

"By now you already know that we take great precautions regarding your well-being," stated my father, "The choker you've been wearing since you were a baby to store any leftover magic that you have every day is one example of how we try to prepare you for emergencies."

"This wrist watch that I've crafted myself is one of those items," he continued, "It is designed to alert you when any food or drink that you're about to consume has been tampered with by heating up, though not to a harmful temperature. It also serves as a moon chart and a mini replica of the sky." He finished with a wink.

The watch was just the right amount of cute. Not too girly and not too tomboyish; it had a brown leather strap and some golden designs. It looked like a wrist watch at a glance, but there were numerous little knobs that could be turned and pushed to activate its features.

"This one's from me." Mom said as she handed me the package held by Saku-chan. "It is the Azoth dagger. It can be used as a wand, though it has way less finesse when performing magic. My recommendation would be to use it for rune crafting. It makes a wicked weapon as well."

The dagger did look really sweet. It had a leathered covered hilt and a blade with a purple sheen to it. A round ruby was set into the hilt. I'd probably have to start taking lessons on how to wield it from dad during our martial arts practice. I had to be prepared for any scenario after all.

"Well then," Saku-chan chimed in, "Bardroy's cooking will get cold if we don't start dinner soon. Let's move the party to the dining room to start the feast."

* * *

"As the heir to the Dantalian household you'll have to go through some extensive training_._" Began my mother "Sakura, Asuka, Morte, and I will teach you what we know. Each of us will be in charge of a specific subject, though we will only be able to teach you the ones that don't require a wand as well as the basic skills such as english, math, and science. You're only five after all."

I was glad that they weren't holding back on me. I didn't want to be bothered with things that other kids my age were learning, like reading and writing. I already knew how to do those things, hell all I had to work on was adjusting to the body but even that didn't take very long. Now I mostly bothered Finny and May. Tanaka and my dad did prove to be mean chess buddies though, but I was catching up to them quickly.

The training was hard. I was learning runes and basic spell theory from Morte, who proved surprisingly knowledgeable for a skull. When asked about how he knew the subjects so well, he remained tight-lipped. He also took over teaching me Occlumency, saying "As her familiar, I should get to know her anyway." I'd been nervous about him entering my mind. I did have memories of being reborn after all, but when he saw them all he did was shrug say, "I've seen weirder shit in my life."

Sakura took over herbology and basic potions. I was learning to classify the more subtle and mundane plants for now, but Sakura said we would move on to the more exotic and dangerous plants as I grew. Mom took over more advanced spell theory and also taught me how to approach magic I was unused to, stating that handling magic carelessly would easily lead to my death. Dad taught me astronomy and muggle self-defense, making sure I would be prepared for combat without a wand. He even took it upon himself to reconnect with the Muggle world.

It was all very difficult, but runes were the most complex. They were the only real magic I could work without a wand, but were hideously complex. Morte taught me with the assistance of some illusions to form the actual runes. There were immeasurable combinations, arrays, and circumstances to learn and consider. I learned to draw runes in rain, sunlight, moonlight, darkness, hail, snow, any kind of weather. Similarly, I learned to draw them in the fall, winter, spring, summer, as a man, as a woman, even (rather pointlessly in my opinion) as a hermaphrodite. Everything had an impact on their effect. The basic fire rune, _ignis,_ drawn in winter produced a mild flame that could be used for lighting a campfire with a little effort. The same effort in summer could produce a bonfire instantaneously. The male runes were learned mainly in case of transfigurations or curses, and Morte informed me that I would eventually learn how to do it while under the effects of Human Transfiguration. And this was simply the tip of the iceberg when it came to runes.

I was actually thankful for the work. It reminded me of the sometimes masochistic pleasure I could take from studying far into the night, until my eyes felt like they were on fire and my hands ached from taking notes. The other classes worked me hard, but Runes wrung me to the bone and then came back for even more. I had a flair for it, but it was my dedication that led to Morte proudly informing me that I would go very far in the field of Runes at this pace.

Meanwhile, Herbology and potions from Sakura went well. I had no particular talent for Herbology, much to Sakura's dismay (She recovered when Neville proved to be excellent at it though), but I was a natural at Potions. I began experimenting with the ingredients, heavily supervised by Sakura of course, but I enjoyed it in much the same way I enjoyed runes, even if I found it easier. The spell theory I was taught by Morte and my Mom was, in essence, learning the mechanics of spells. Intent, I learned, was more important than words. However, words influenced the casting, and speaking in a different language seemed to change the "tone" of a spell. Expelliarmus, in Latin, was a simple disarming. If overpowered, it could break a wrist, but it was generally harmless and sent the disarmed object towards the caster. Expelliarmus in Chinese, however, worked differently. The light was a more vibrant red, and would often be more elegant than the basic Latin incantation would. There were other examples, but we would come back to them.

Instead, I began learning more about the differences between Non-Verbal and Verbal spells. Non-verbal required a vast amount of experience with a spell, and generally only master magi such as Dumbledore or Grindelwald learned to cast almost all spells in their repertoire silently. Verbal was easier because the words acted as a sort of memory thing, bringing to mind the effect desired. Creating a spell was hard because you had to find the words that fit the effect, and then mentally create the image and effect in almost every imaginable circumstance. It was frankly amazing that there were so many spells, what with the difficulty of creating them.

Astronomy and defense went more varied. I was pants at martial arts, but I learned enough from Dad that, with some help from my dagger, I could hold up in a fight against some inexperienced thugs. Astronomy was learned easily due to the fact that Morte relentlessly pounded circumstances into my skull, but my father taught me the uses for the stars in spellcraft. He was considered a genius in the field of Astronomy for being the first to incorporate it in spells since the dark ages. He taught me that the phases of the moon had a powerful effect on spells when worded in a certain way, and this went double for runes. The same was said of the stars. I was talented at using the moon, but I was having difficulties with the stars. I had issues with locating them quickly. Once I found a certain star, it became easier, but I had a slow start that I would have to overcome eventually.


	5. Departure

**Chapter 5: **Departure

_6 years later_

"So, what's next on the list." asked Tonks.

I'd received my Hogwarts letter (every 11 year Old's wet dream) about a month ago. The fact that I'd be attending Hogwarts in two weeks was still a bit surreal even though she had lived in the magical world for 11 years. I wish I could say that I was impressed by the flurry of activity of Diagon Alley, but I'd gotten used to it after the first few times that I'd accompanied the members of my family during their errands. I did drool a bit the first time though; it was really colorful and, well, magical.

My parents had made it their top priority to experience this little rite of passage with me, and it didn't take long for Morte, Sakura, Neville, and Tonks to sign up as well. The metamorphmagus had started spending a part of her summers at our home, claiming that I needed a big sister figure even though I ended up cleaning her messes; it was a nightmare to have her and May in the same room, nothing could withstand their combined clumsiness. We did grow close though, and Neville also ended up becoming part of our family of misfits. He'd continued to take Herbology lessons from Sakura and he'd gotten really good at it, we sometimes had trouble keeping up with him.

"Well we already got the books…" said Neville.

"…And your clothes." chimed in mom.

"Your cauldron and potion ingredients are here as well." added dad.

"We've also purchased your brass scales and Asuka has your telescope at home." continued Sakura.

"Then that only leaves my wand since I've already gotten my owl." I summed up, getting a happy hoot from Hector.

"I still don't see why you need that thing," huffed Morte, "Aren't I good enough?"

"Sure, if you want to carry the mail," I responded, "Not that that's all you're good for Hector!"

Said owl gave me a calculating gaze, luckily he was appeased by a little petting.

"Well we might as well get going then," dad said, "Isn't this supposed to be the best part of the trip?"

"Yeah!" confirmed Tonks, "I can still remember when I got my wand…"

"I can't believe I have to wait two more years to get mine." sighed Neville.

"Don't worry," reassured mom, "At least you don't have to do all those foot-length essays that the teachers assign yet."

"And you get to stay with me too!" said Sakura, "We'll have lots of fun when the girls are gone!"

"Hey!" Tonks and I shouted in unison.

"Alright kids!" called dad, "We're here."

The shop was rather nice, it looked bigger on the inside, but maybe that was just the effect of the numerous wand boxes stacked in neat rows behind the counter. Hell, I don't even think there were enough wizards in England to use those up.

"Welcome!" greeted a soft voice. Tonks jumped, knocking into a chair in the process.

We murmured a number of hellos to which the man-probably Ollivander if the graying hair and air of wisdom was anything to go by-responded with a light smile.

"Oh, that's right" he said, "It's about time for the youngest Dantalian to get her wand. Your violet eyes give you away dear."

"Uhh, yeah." I replied, he was a bit intimidating; albeit in an "I could snap at any minute from my high" kind of way. He was nice though.

"Hmm, let's see…" he trailed.

"Try this one. Maple and phoenix feather, 11 inches, bendy." he suggested, handing me one of the wands.

"Never mind!" he said, taking away the piece of wood before I could even wave it.

"Here, this should do." He mumbled to himself. "Oak with dragon heartstring, 8 inches, very whippy."

It produced a faint spark, but it died almost instantly.

"No that won't do either, but maybe… that one!" he exclaimed, reaching for a box further away from the rest.

Those were just the first of many, by this point everyone would've graduated from Hogwarts before I'd even gotten hold of the damn thing. Neville had been knocked out a long time ago and was lying on a dozing Sakura's lap, mom and dad had whipped out some books (smart bastards) and Tonks was amusing herself by changing her features. Damn, even Morte had found something to do, he was snapping his teeth at a flustered Hector…fucking traitors.

"I made this one a few years back from ingredients I collected during a trip," he explained, "It's Reed with hippogriff feather and chimera scale fragment, sturdy, 14 inches."

As soon as he handed it to me I knew it was the one. I felt a warm sensation course through my body and a group of bubbles formed as I gave it a try.

"Excellent!" praised the man, "That's quite a wand you've got there. Difficult to work with and control due to the raw power of the scales but it will prove very loyal if you respect it."

"Nice find!" commented mom.

"That will be fifteen galleons." said Ollivander.

"Definitely worth it," agreed dad while handing him the money, "Hippogriff feathers and Chimera scale fragments are rare to find in wands right Mr. Ollivander?"

"Quite true," agreed the old man, "I daresay that was the only one I had in stock; it was certainly a challenge to create."

Hmmm, that sounded nice.

* * *

I'd concluded a long time ago that by the time I attended Hogwarts I'd be way too far ahead from my classmates to truly learn anything new. I'd learned a lot from my study sessions with the members of my family, and I'd made sure to read as many of the books in the family library as I could after finding out that I'd have to read them all before taking over the family. Talk about pressure, It wouldn't be easy to read nearly a million books; I thanked my lucky stars that the heir got access to a room in which time was slowed down.

In theory, I should be a complete badass by now. But that was only in theory, it turned out that while my mind was more than suited for all of the knowledge and techniques, my actual magic system was not. I found out about this while learning my first-and so far only-nonverbal spell. Its name was Gandr, a very basic spell that would decrease the physical health of the target; it was quite simple, the more magic I focused on it, the more damage it made. I'd started out with small sparks, getting a feel for it, and started concentrating more and more every time I practiced. I got tired pretty easily, but we'd all assumed that it was because it was my first real spell I was only nine at the time after all. But that wasn't the reason, and we'd found that out the hard way during one of my training lessons in which mom encouraged me to push myself to my limit. And boy did I push myself. I ended up vomiting blood all over the grass in our back yard and being bedridden for three days. At least I could brag about making a huge gaping hole in the middle of one of our trees. I had them keep it as a war trophy of sorts.

Mom had been pretty beaten up about it. She really did blame herself for pushing me too far and had even postponed our training sessions until dad and I talked to her about it. They'd been slightly more protective over me after that, but they tried to hide it. I didn't give them crap about it though, I actually did feel secretly happy for their protectiveness since I hadn't had such an experience as Alice; plus, they actually tried to help me find ways to modify spells so they wouldn't use as much magic, Morte had even helped by teaching me containment runes. I'd actually carved one on the bottom of my wand to store precharged spells.

They'd organized a little dinner party for me, to celebrate the whole "Wow-you're-going-to-Hogwarts-I-never-saw-it-comin g". We'd invited Tonks' parents, Andromeda and Ted, along with Neville and his grandmother (Merlin bless his soul) It was pretty nice; my parents had decided to give me a silver tiara with a golden centerpiece as a parting gift (I guess they did have a flair for the dramatic). They'd imbued it with heating and cooling charms, as well as a handy dandy impervius charm. The rest of the night was spent just playing around; I was trying to avoid thinking of being away from my family after being together for so many years. I should've been prepared for it, but it was still saddening to be away from them for most of the year.

* * *

The fact that I was about to attend Hogwarts didn't really sink in until the next morning at the train station. I was ready to go with my trunks. I'd always found it funny that Hogwarts students had to carry those big-ass trunks when there was a perfectly usable undetectable extension charm that could be casted by their parents. I made full use of this little nugget and had my parents charm mine, so now one of them held all of my school supplies and clothing while the other held a portable mini lab. Morte and Hector were by my side (figuratively speaking, Morte was actually floating), with Sakura and my parents following right behind.

It was all going pretty smoothly, that is until we spotted a group of familiar redheads.

"Shit!" exclaimed mom.

She was about to walk back through the wall but she was stopped by a pair of voices shouting "There's Dalian!"

As I mentioned before, the twins and I had become good friends due to Sakura's babysitting side job. I was proud to say that I could now somewhat differentiate between the two of them; George was nicer anyhow and their voices had different pitches. They were really the only friends my age that I had, I'd even taken up helping them with their experiments sometimes.

"Hi guys." I greeted.

"We've got some new inventions that we want to try at school." began George.

"Hogwarts doesn't know what's gonna hit it!" finished Fred.

"So long as you keep your shit from hitting me you've got yourselves a consultant." I said, earning a grin from them.

All I got from Percy was a nod before he went back to...whatever the hell a Percy did. He was a third year now; surprisingly he wasn't as stuck up as described in the books, probably because he was younger. We'd sort of established a weird relationship, we were polite to each other but my more "wild" nature prevented us from getting closer.

I gave Ron and Ginny a hug, poor souls had to stay by themselves for a few more years. All of the Weasleys were here, minus Bill since he'd graduated some time ago. I think he was starting his Curse Breaker Career for Gringotts.

"Hi Charlie!" I said as I noticed him; he was pretty cool, like a second older brother (Bill being the first) that I didn't have to live with; I pitied Ginny sometimes.

"Hi Dal, ready for Hogwarts?" he asked.

"Not really, I don't wanna have to get up early." I replied, eliciting a sweatdrop from all of them.

"Don't you already do that when you train?" inquired Tonks as she joined us after crossing the barrier, she sure could sneak up on people sometimes.

"Yeah, but that's my own choice, down with authority!" I joked, the two of them just shook their heads in disbelief; at least the twins got my sense of humor, they were laughing their asses off.

"Dantalian." stated Mrs. Weasley.

"Weasley." Replied mom just as coolly.

I always loved when mom and Mrs. Weasley met. I swear, they barely tolerated each other. Dad and Mr. Weasley on the other hand had the whole bro thing going on. They even gave each other manly hugs before starting to discuss their latest discoveries. Dad did always encourage Mr. Weasley to join the Clock tower, but the man enjoyed his work with muggle technology and artifacts too much.

Our conversations were stopped short though as the warning whistle rang.

"Better get going kids," said Mr. Weasley "Wouldn't want to miss the train."


	6. Year One

**A/N:** I think this is the longest chapter I've ever written, over 5k I tell ya. Hopefully that makes up for all the short ones I've written so far, not to mention the long time I took to update. Thanks for all the feedback by the way!

* * *

**Chapter 6: **Year One

It took a while but we eventually managed to find an empty compartment. It was just the twins and I though since Percy, Tonks, and Charlie went off to find their friends…assholes.

"Sooo," began Fred, "What's up with the tiara princess?"

"Yeah, is that some sort of new fashion statement?" chimed in George.

"It was a gift dammit!" I exclaimed, "It's actually pretty handy!"

"Sure, whatever you say." they said in unison. Damn their twin shtick.

"How come you brought Morte with you?" asked George, "Aren't you supposed to bring only one pet?"

"How insulting!" bristled Morte, "I'm not a pet! I'm a familiar! Don't lump me with that flying rat that calls itself an owl!"

"Shhh; there, there Morte," I soothed, "here, have an owl treat."

"Thanks," he grumbled, "And to answer your question, I'm more like a part of Dalian; you could say that our souls are somewhat connected since she's the one actually keeping me in this plane of existence."

"Lucky!" they exclaimed. I don't think they really cared about the possibility of there being another realm.

"Yup!" she agreed.

"Do you want anything from the trolley dears?" asked a kind-looking old lady as she stopped pushing a cart stocked with numerous magical sweets.

"Nah, we're fine." answered the twins.

"I don't want any either." I added.

"Alright, then. Don't hesitate to look for me if you decide you want some later!" she said as she made her way past our compartment.

"I can't believe that the sugar addict doesn't want any sweets!" exclaimed Fred dramatically.

"Whatever shall we do? It's the end of the world!" said George making it seem like he was fainting.

"Hilarious," I deadpanned, "I actually went shopping for muggle school supplies a few days ago and bought a huge stash of muggle candy for us. But I guess you don't want any…"

"Whoa, whoa take it easy!" they said.

"That's what I thought." I smirked triumphantly.

I then started to rummage through the bag that Sakura had given me for my eighth birthday. It was pretty cool; she'd designed it to look like a face with a zipper that looked like a huge grinning mouth with sharp teeth. It was a light brown color with a leather strap that allowed it to hang from my hip, kinda like a fanny pack but more like a little sack. Sakura had even gone and asked mom to place an undetectable extension charm on it (That charm was extremely useful) so now I used it to store potions and other stuff like books and my dagger, not to mention my huge stash of sweets. I had debated whether or not to put my wand in there too, but I decided to use a wand holster designed by my dad instead; so now my wand was always at the ready on my wrist and it was hard to detect thanks to my sleeves.

"Here they are!" I exclaimed as I pulled out a sack from my bag and held it out for them to see. I then emptied it out on the empty spot next to me and we all marveled at the sick amount of chocolate bars, gummy bears, airheads, sour patch kids, Wonka candy…hell there were so many to choose from that we actually started to feel bad for the kids who had to eat 'normal' wizarding candy.

"Why were you buying school supplies in a muggle shop anyways?" asked Fred as he tried some skittles, "Not that I'm complaining."

"I was buying pens, rulers, notebooks…" I trailed off, "Normal school stuff that is way better than the medieval crap we will use in Hogwarts. It's not like I'll make a pencil explode with my magic."

"I guess." he shrugged.

"You know what," began George, "You never did tell us what house you want to be placed in."

"That's true" agreed Fred, "And you can't say that we never told you either since we've been practically shouting to the high heavens that we _will_ be Gryffindors."

"Alright, don't get your knickers in a twist," I defended myself, "I guess if I had the option to choose I would want to be a…Hufflepuff."

"Seriously!?" exclaimed George, "Why would anyone ever want to be there?"

"I dunno," I shrugged, "I just think that it would be very relaxing; plus badgers are awesome."

"Of course that would be it." they grumbled.

We kept on talking and playing around throughout the ride. It was easy to have fun with the twins, and I had no doubt that even if I wasn't placed in Gryffindor we would still continue to be friends. I'd managed to worm my way inside their little duo, and I even had the whole binding thing of being a childhood friend to boot. But while it was nice to have friends and all, it still sucked that if I wanted to keep on being their friend-which I did-I would have to be dragged in to the whole fight against Voldemort. It couldn't be helped; they were family just like Neville and Tonks, and I had vowed to myself long ago that I would protect my family at any cost. So now little Tom Riddle will have to go fuck himself if he thinks I'll let his shit slide. Sure, I couldn't outright backhand him to next week, but I had extensive knowledge of major plot points that I could use to screw him over. Mwahaha, let the plotting BEGIN!

I was pulled from my thoughts by a nudge from George signaling that we had arrived. Thankfully Tonks had been a dear and decided to make up for ditching us by reminding us to get dressed. Not that she didn't get some benefits in the form of candy for it though.

"Ready to battle a dragon kiddies?" I asked with a smirk as we made our way out.

"Pfft, as if." said Fred.

"Dumbledore wouldn't put his students in danger on purpose." added George.

'_You'd be surprised.'_ I thought to myself.

We then made our way outside and I shivered as we were hit by the chilly air, I thanked whomever the hell was up there for my robes; it was like wearing a snuggie outside without looking retarded.

"Fir's years! Fir's years over here!" called Hagrid. I chuckled when the twin's eyes widened when he approached us.

I grabbed their hands and dragged them to a boat with me. They'd get the hang of it eventually.

"Whoa! We get to ride the boats!?" they marveled, "Wicked!"

"Just try not to tip the boat over." I sighed, "That'd be such a drag."

"We make no promises." they responded with matching smiles.

We were eventually joined by another boy and set out to the school. I tried my best not to look at the lake since I could still remember all of the creatures that were shown to live in it in book four. That shit was scary.

"Everyone here?" asked Hagrid as we huddled near the huge double doors leading to the castle; he took our silence as a yes and knocked on the door.

We all looked in silence at the stern-looking witch that opened the door. She was wearing emerald-green robes and had her black hair pulled up in a bun; I immediately dubbed her as McGonagall.

"Thank you Hagrid, I'll take over from here." she said as she motioned for us to step inside the castle.

It was a castle alright. It had stonewalls that were lit by flaming torches and a ceiling so high I couldn't even see it. We were stopped near the staircase for McGonagall to give us the rundown of what was going to happen next; I took this time to look at the students who were nearly trembling with anticipation at the prospect of being sorted instead since I already know the basics, I would never let Fred and George live it down. I suppose I should've sympathized with them, but by this point all I wanted was to eat and sleep.

"I'll be back momentarily in order to start the sorting," finished McGonagall, "I suggest you start fixing yourselves up."

An excited murmur started to spread when she left the room. I saw Fred and George start up a conversation with the boy from the boat; probably about quidditch, Merlin knows that's all they ever talk about. I could still remember the time that they actually got me to play, I can confidently say that that was the worst decision I've ever made in both of my lives.

We all gasped as a swarm of ghosts emerged from the doors as they opened. Sure, I was a witch, but I'd never actually gotten to see a ghost in person.

"How come you guys never react to me like that?" whined Morte from his spot on my shoulder. We'd gotten a kick out of scaring the shit out of others when we were outside.

"You're old news now." I droned.

"I resent that!" he exclaimed.

"Now form a line," ordered McGonagall as she walked towards us, "and follow me."

As we entered the hall I couldn't help but to marvel at how spot on the movies were. That was something that I wondered about constantly though, why did everything look pretty much the same as the movies? But oh well, McGonagall seemed to have already started the sorting as I zoned out, I did make sure to mouth a "Suckers" at the twins as they realized that they were pretty much going to be last.

"Dantalian, Dalian" called the witch.

I straightened my shoulders and approached the stool as commanded upon hearing my name. Almost as soon as her words left her lips a rush of whispers started; no doubt either commenting on my family's achievements or on our presumed snobbishness and selfishness due to our refusal to share said knowledge. I couldn't care less though; the Wizarding World wasn't about to cash in on our hard earned discoveries.

I took Morte off of my shoulders in order to keep him out of the sorting hat's way. I imagined that I made quite a morbid image, what with me being a small girl holding a skull on her lap and all. I allowed the hat into my mind for a few seconds, making sure to block any information that I didn't want it to see. Morte was an excellent Occlumency teacher after all.

"Hmm, interesting" said the hat, "I see wisdom and courage, though you have cunning and loyalty in abundance as well."

"I don't know where you even got half of those from." I remarked.

"You would do well in Slytherin." it said.

"Fuck no," I refused.

"Being a Slytherin doesn't mean you're evil you know," it explained, "Merlin was a Slytherin, and he turned out alright."

"I know," I said, "But I refuse to deal with the whole Slytherin-Gryffindor bullshit. Being in either of those houses would mean a lot of work."

"Very well," he stated, "I suppose there is no other place for you than…RAVENCLAW!"

The students from said house immediately started applauding as the words left his…lips? Either way I made my way to them and sat down on an empty spot, eagerly awaiting the start of the feast.

The rest of the night, as the saying goes, was history.

* * *

I woke up on a nice canopy bed with blue and bronze bedding.

'_Ah yes,'_ I thought, _'I'm in Hogwarts'_

The Ravenclaw common room was actually pretty nice. I found myself falling in love with it at first sight; the ceiling had an enchanted starry sky, much like the one in the Great Hall, and had numerous bookcases scattered throughout. I bet dad would love it, though I knew that the whole "riddle instead of password" thing would get bothersome pretty soon. I hadn't really paid much attention to my roommates last night, I wasn't a particularly chatty person and I would've never made friends if Sakura hadn't been there to prod me not to mention that the members of my house resented me for being a Dantalian. So I decided to skip the pleasantries and headed straight to the Great Hall after getting ready; I looked spiffy with my Ravenclaw tie, if I do say so myself.

"Mornin." I sleepily greeted the twins as I sat down next to them.

"You do know that this is the Gryffindor table, right?" asked an amused Fred.

"So? What are you? The seating police?" I snapped.

"Whoa! Someone woke up on the wrong side of the bed." commented George.

"Sorry," I muttered, "I haven't had to wake up this early in a while."

"That's alright." said Fred, "Where's Morte?"

"Bastard decided to sleep in." I grumbled.

"Here have some breakfast, maybe that will lift your mood." offered George.

"Thanks," I said, "Did I mention how exceptionally good you look this morning? 'Cause you do."

"People do often remark on my stunning good looks; I'm the better looking twin after all." he joked.

"That's funny, I'm always being told the same thing." countered Fred, making me crack a smile.

"Here are your timetables young Weasleys," greeted McGonagall,"Ms. Dantalian I believe that professor Flitwick has yours."

"Awww, but he's so far away." I complained, earning an unamused look from the witch.

I eventually gave up and walked towards the Ravenclaw table in search of the tiny professor, saying hi to Tonks and the other Weasleys in the process. It didn't take me long to find him though, seeing as the teachers were pretty much the only ones standing.

"Professor Flitwick, May I have my timetable?" I asked the man, eliciting a yelp from him.

"Oh yes, Ms. Dantalian was it?" he asked.

"Just Dalian, Ms. Dantalian is my mother." I answered, getting a kick out of messing with him. "Do professors memorize their students' names or something? You all seem to know our names and faces already."

"Here you go." He said as he pulled out my schedule, "You actually have charms with me first. And to answer your question, we put a charm on the timetables so that they direct us to the students they belong to."

"Hmmm, that's handy." I commented, "By the way, can you point me to your classroom? I don't fancy getting lost on my first day."

Charms with Flitwick actually turned out to be fun. It was an opportunity for me to actually practice with my wand rather than just study the theories like I'd been doing before. My wand turned out to be a temperamental bitch though, it refused to do spells like _Accio_ and _Alohomora_ when I tried them out after completing my work; fucking chimera scales. I did like professor Flitwick though; he was a cool teacher and he made class more enjoyable, so I made sure to actually try in his class.

The same couldn't be said for Transfiguration though. I had this class with the Gryffindors rather than the Hufflepuffs with whom I had charms, so I chose to sit next to the twins. True to her stern nature, McGonagall started out the class by basically saying that she wouldn't take any crap from us; only for me to fall asleep after successfully turning a match into a needle. I couldn't help but to give her a cheeky smile as she tried to tell me off for not completing my work only to find out that I'd finished already; that got a kick out of the twins.

It wasn't that I didn't like the class; it was actually almost as fun as charms. The problem was that its' use required too much work. Sure the classroom stuff was a piece of cake for me, but Transfiguration would never be something I could use fully, due to my poor reserves. The only reason I was good at the classroom stuff was because I studied the theory behind transfiguration heavily, but I could only do a few transfigurations or conjurations before I tired myself out. All in all, I was more of a charms person.

History of Magic was one of my favorite classes. It wasn't the subject, or even the professor; it was actually the fact that I could utilize it as a free period. Oh, Professor Binns was boring as hell alright, but I had actually been prepared for it. I had taken it upon myself to convince my dad and the twins to create a modified version of Rita Skeeter's quick -quote's quill so that now, instead of writing all that bullshit that it did, it took down notes from whomever the user instructed too. We had all high-fived when we got to that class since Gryffindors and Ravenclaws also shared it, and proceeded to tune the droning ghost out.

I didn't have much trouble with Herbology since Sakura had already covered all the plants that Professor Sprout was going over so I did pretty well. I shared both that class and Astronomy with the Slytherins; they were mostly alright, not too insufferable, I guess it was because we weren't Gryffindors. I could easily say that Astronomy was one of my best subjects hands-down. It was something that I truly enjoyed mostly because of my previous experiences on it with my dad, and my watch sure did come in handy during our sessions. Professor Sinistra was almost as strict as McGonagall though but thankfully she left me alone just like her.

I'd just gotten finished with my Defense Against the Dark Arts with Professor Taylor, now there was a new face. The Professor herself was pretty nice and easygoing, just like her class. It was mostly because it was a Ravenclaw-Hufflepuff class though, too bad we only learned about magical creatures; that meant that I had to practice defensive and offensive spells on my own.

I had "compulsory" flying lessons with the now, or at least I would've if I hadn't decided to ditch.

'_Good luck getting me on a broom again'_ I thought dryly as I made my way out of the Hogwarts' grounds. I thought that Hagrid was due a visit by little ol' me, I just didn't know a way to go about it without looking like a creep.

"Whoof!" I heard a dog bark as it approached me. It was very large and had black fur, and he was apparently really fast since he managed to tackle me to the ground before I could turn ad run away.

"Ooof!" I grunted as I felt his weight settle on me; he must have taken my grunt as a greeting though as he barked once more and started licking my face.

"Fang!" I heard someone shout, "Get back here you ol' dog!"

The dog was then pulled off of me, allowing me a full view of my half-giant savior.

"Sorry abou' that," he apologized, "I don't know what got to him."

"No problem." I reassured him.

"You're the Dantalian girl aren't ya?" he asked, "Why don't you come inside my house to clean yerself up? Fang sure did a number on you."

"Well, I don't usually go into the houses of strangers…" I answered, "But your beard's cool so I'll guess I'll give you a chance."

'_Jackpot!'_ I internally celebrated achieving my goal without looking like a creep.

We made our way to his house with a sheepish looking Fang following behind. The place was rather cozy, but not entirely clean. Kudos to him for trying though, it sure did look better than my room when I worked on a project.

"The bathroom's back there. I'll get ya some tea and cakes." he said.

'_Shit! Aren't those things rock hard!?_' I thought, I guess my obituary would now have to read "Death by Dessert.", rather ironic. I wondered if my family and friends would have a laugh about that. I know I would.

I cleaned myself up the best that I could with a wet rag, I wouldn't be winning any beauty contests or anything but then again I had potions next, yet another reason I was taking this time to do something relaxing. I knew that Snape wouldn't be as much of an asshole with the Ravenclaw-Hufflepuff duo (Why were we joined at the hip?) since his whole vendetta was against Harry, but damn I didn't feel like taking his shit.

"So, aren't you supposed to be in class right now?" asked the man.

"Uhhh…yes?" I answered truthfully; I just couldn't lie to that face. The man was like a giant teddy bear, and dammit was I a sap when it came to him, he was just so nice.

He had a laugh at that, "A troublemaker huh?"

"Some would label me an anarchist," I said, "Though I actually think that being one would require too much effort. I just do what I want."

"At least yer honest." he stated while handing me a rock-I mean a rock cake; they looked ominously similar.

I looked at it warily as I took a sip of my tea. It was pretty lightweight and dark, just like coal.

"Go on, try it." he encouraged me, "I know it doesn't look very tasty to ya kids but I promise it's not that bad."

I decided to cut my losses and lick it instead. Sure a few of my taste buds would die, but at least I wouldn't lose a tooth.

"This is…good." I marveled. I wasn't even joking, those things had potential.

"See, all you had to do was give them a try." he said with a winning smile.

"I shall never again doubt your wisdom Hagrid." I stated seriously as I grabbed another, "You have now won yourself a new rock cake eating buddy."

We shared a laugh at that and started talking about my experience in Hogwarts so far. Too bad it wasn't long before I had to leave for my next class, but I'd promised to visit him again; a promise which I knew I'd keep.

I'd just gotten inside the school to make my way to my potions class when I was spotted by a triumphant looking Filch.

"What do you think you're doing out of class?" he called as he approached me with his damn cat in tow, "I know for a fact that Ravenclaws have flying lessons right now."

I just looked at him with a bored expression, figuring it would piss him off.

"Not talking eh? We'll see if you still are after detention! Follow me to my office, and no funny business" he warned as he led me to his office.

I was tempted to flip him the bird and run off, but it wasn't like I blended in very well with my classmates. So I decided to do as he said for once and followed him to his office, shuddering a bit as I spotted the chains and manacles hung on the wall behind his desk. His office was filled with filing cabinets and had no windows, very like him to keep war trophies of all the souls he'd defeated. I had to do a double take though as I spotted one labeled "Confiscated and Highly Dangerous", wasn't that…

Oh hell yes!

That was the place where he kept the marauders' map! That thing could be so useful, I was already dying to get my hands on it and start studying it. I hoped the twins hadn't taken it yet; I would still give it to them after I was done with it, I just wanted to hold it. For an extended period of time, of course.

"Write your name here." Filch commanded while handing out a quill to me and pointing to a piece of parchment, "And don't think about writing a fake one, this quill is charmed to detect lies."

I decided to take a gamble, seeing no harm in it and wrote down my name. A name that technically wasn't mine but would still belong to me forever.

_Alice Tracy_

And it worked.

"You'll be cleaning the Library with Madam Pince." he said with satisfaction as he finished writing something on the parchment, "I heard a pair of Gryffindors set a dungbomb there."

I used his distraction to cast a charm, "_Ventus._"

The effect was instantaneous, a whirlwind sprouted out of my wand and went around the room flipping cabinets and spilling out their contents. Filch was horror struck at the mayhem that his office was turning into, and I used that moment to whisper an "_Accio Marauder's_ Map." and then ran the hell out of there like the devil was on my heels after shouting "You'll never get me alive!"

I stopped in front of the dungeons to catch my breath before going in; Merlin knows I needed it after that little stunt. I walked inside and took an empty seat next to a Hufflepuff girl after regaining my composure and sighed in relief that Snape wasn't there yet, not that I was afraid of him or anything…

I watched in fascination as said man walked in with his billowing robes (I really had to learn how he did that) and immediately started to hum the Imperial March from Star Wars which ended up spoiling the mood and made the muggle born students laugh.

"I will not tolerate any foolishness in my classroom!" Snape said while looking for the source of the noise.

I tried to look nonchalant, but the huge-ass grin on my face must've given me away "10 points from Ravenclaw."

He then started to do his whole "Don't fuck with me or I'll fuck you up" speech and ordered us to get started on brewing a boil curing potions; what a slave driver.

He kept on going around and criticizing everyone on their methods, saying things like "Do you not know the difference between horned slugs and regular slugs?" and "Only two porcupine quills, not four."

Luckily for me he was too distracted by some kid's cauldron blowing up and he didn't get to me until we were all done. That left me plenty of time to make my potion in peace; I really did love potions, especially since they didn't require much magic.

"What have we here Ms. Dantalian" he said as he inspected my potion. "Very well made, your classmates could learn a thing or two from you."

All that did was earn me glares from said students.

* * *

The rest of the year went by pretty uneventfully; I became good friends with Hagrid, Fang, and Professor Flitwick. McGonagall decided to leave me be since I at least did her classwork and Snape and I had even developed a sort of mutual respect with one another. The same couldn't be said for Filch though, not that I wanted any kind of relationship with him; he was still clueless as how I'd tricked his quill but he'd resigned himself to his loss seeing as there were no witnesses that would want to help him incriminate me. Sure, the other Ravenclaws ignored me because they resented my family, but they were still above screwing over one of their own.

My other Professors were alright, I'd gotten some of them to give me some tips for spells that I was trying to modify and Professor Taylor had even showed me new ones like _Expelliarmus_ and _Stupefy_ when I finished my work early in order to keep me busy. I guess she thought I would give up after a while, like a toddler with an intricate puzzle, but I'd actually taken to practice them until I'd almost reached my limit. It took me a while to master them due to my low magic reserves, but I did eventually get most of my spells down pat; all that was left then was to tweak them to make them use less of my magic. The room of requirement proved to be quite useful in this, allowing me a room full of all the equipment needed to research and experiment. I would usually head there sometime after dinner with a disillusionment charm and the Marauders' map in hand, yet another item that proved useful during my late night escapades.

I had grown obsessed with the task of deciphering its' make-up. I didn't want to keep it for long, and I sometimes felt guilty enough to give the twins the locations of hidden corridors. I did eventually figure out how it worked though, and I was impressed at the amount of charms and even runes that went into just the surface of the map. It did take me a while but I was proud to say that by the end of the school year I had managed to make a replica of it, in my watch. That's right, total badass over here; mother would be so proud. I did make some tweaks to it though like making it able to differentiate between two people with the same name, yeah I still remembered the whole Barty Crouch Jr. shit. I made it only accessible by twisting the knobs in a certain order, and I'd made sure to cast some powerful protection charms on the thing in order to keep it from being destroyed or used by the wrong people; only I was able to take it off or use it now.

I did have a whole new dilemma with the room of requirement though. I knew that Rowena Ravenclaw's diadem was in there, as well as the vanishing cabinet; I just didn't know whether I wanted to make that much of a change. But I decided to just suck it up and do it; no regrets. So I found myself shrinking the damn cabinet and throwing it in the middle of the Black Lake. I left the diadem for last though and placed it in my bag on the last day of school.

"Where were you?" asked George.

"I was required elsewhere." I answered with a shit eating grin on my face.

"Suuure." said Lee Jordan, he'd joined our little group sometime during the year and we'd become good friends, especially since I spent most of my time with them; McGonagall had gotten tired of trying to get me to sit with my house.

"Well, I've got something for you guys" I whispered while pulling the map out of my pocket, "This, gentlemen, is the marvelous Marauders' map! Stolen from Filch's office by yours truly"

"What's so special about it?" asked Fred.

"Oh nothing, you know just the usual revealing of most of Hogwart's secret passages…" I trailed off.

"Wicked!" they all exclaimed.

"It also shows the location of everyone in Hogwart's," I continued, "All you have to do is say 'I solemnly swear I am up to no good' while pointing your wand at it."

They proceeded to do so, and their eyes glowed with mischief.

"Wait," said Lee, "Does this mean that you've had this thing since the beginning of the year?"

"And you didn't share." continued the twins with an accusatory look.

"I did!" I defended, "Who was the one that told you to tickle the pear in order to get to the kitchens?"

"Oh that's right." They agreed.

"But I still think it's some kind of sexual innuendo." smirked Fred.

"Whatever," I droned while taking the map away from them, "Just say 'Mischief Managed' while pointing your wand at it when you're done."

"You're welcome." I said pointedly.

"Oh, right. Thanks" they replied absentmindedly; damn ingrates. Let's see who the hell would help them out with their ideas next time…

We boarded the train and got ready for a long ride. I still had to prepare myself for the bout of questions that would arise when I showed my parents the Horcrux for them to examine it. At least then we could start to research new ways to destroy them.

**END OF YEAR ONE**

* * *

**A/N:** Finally! There's year one. Not much dialogue in it since I'm just basically summing up the major parts of her experience. I highly doubt that many people would want to read 20 chapters about how she slept through most of her classes and had tea with Hagrid. Year two is next, after which Harry and the others will finally make an appearance. Hope you liked the chapter!


	7. Changes

**Chapter 7: **Changes**  
**

The summer break had gone by rather quickly, and my second year in Hogwarts had been rather uneventful. I spent most of my just doing research in the room of requirement; that had actually gotten the twins to ask me about why I didn't show up in the Marauders' Map sometimes. I wasn't ready to give up my secret lair though, so I just gave them really ambiguous answers to piss them off.

I didn't slack on my martial arts training though. I made a point to practice the exercises that dad had instilled in me since childhood at least twice a day. My magic deficiency could prove fatal during the upcoming war, so I had to make sure to be fit and nimble in order to move fluidly through the battlefield. This could prove to be an extremely useful skill to have, especially seeing as most wizards didn't even exercise unless their job required it of them. I grew to love the room of requirement even more when I started these training lessons, seeing as my talent for charms allowed me to charm dummies to fight against me; it certainly made me feel like a badass.

I'd gotten started on a little project of mine this year as well. I'd been fascinated by runes since Morte first started teaching me about them and I tried to implement them in my fighting style as much as possible. I'd done some extensive research at the Dantalian library in anything and everything we had about runes and I'd come up with the idea to engrave runes on palm-sized smooth stones to save my own magic. The idea was to carve a rune, like an exploding or shield rune, onto a stone. Just making a drawing on a rock wouldn't suffice though, what did the trick would be imbuing a portion of my magic inside said stone. It was hard though, I'd gotten the magic transferring part down, but the trick was to make the rune itself absorb my magic, not the rock. The process was tiring, but it would definitely be worth it in the long-run.

Second year really wasn't that different from first year, with the exception that we now got to ride the Thestral-drawn carriages. I was surprised to have been able to see them; I hadn't seen anyone die after all. But I guess it had to do with the whole fact that I actually experienced death, and had a ccepted it. I had taken a liking to the creatures, and had practically begged Hagrid to let me care for them.

My relationship with the other Ravenclaws didn't improve though. It was an unspoken rule that I was to be ignored at all times, even by the first years. Some students had even been stupid enough to try to hurt me, only to receive a shot from my Gandr in return. That quickly spread the word that I wasn't to be messed with, at all. The funny thing was that I didn't even spend that much time with my housemates anyways. I'd made having meals at the Gryffindor table a permanent thing, I even snuck into their common room as well. The Gryffindors had gotten really upset that a second year could invade their common room at first, but they'd learned to deal with it over time; it also helped that I was friends with the twins and Lee.

I did like my Head of house though. Flitwick had gotten really excited over my knowledge and aptitude for charms, going as far as lending me books on the subject, as well as on wards when I asked him about them. I'd often just relax and read a book while watching him direct the frog choir, they were actually pretty good. I found out that there were way more clubs in school than were mentioned in the books, we actually had music, art, gobstones, gardening and even one for magical creatures. Believe it or not I was actually the president of the dueling club. Yeah, that's right; the lazy-ass extraordinaire was in charge of something around here. It was all McGonagall's fault though, she made me an offer I couldn't refuse…that candy was amazing.

What sucked was that I ended up having to do most of the work. The club was set-up so that the Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher would be in charge of it; too bad we had the whole 'DADA teacher quitting every year' curse so there would always be a different teacher in charge of it. I missed Professor Taylor, she would've been a cool teacher to work with; now I was stuck with Professor Schnee, who was strict as hell. I ended up running the club by myself since he refused to take part in such 'tomfoolery', that was fine with me though, especially since he was good friends with _Filch. _Can you imagine the horror?

The club was successful though, and I'd even gotten the Gryffindors and Slytherins to be somewhat civil to each other. It was like having my own DA…hmm Dalian's Army, that sounded promising. I couldn't wait until Remus started to teach, then again Umbridge would be a pain to deal with.

Aside from that nothing really happened, I really wanted Harry to get here already; if only because I'd decided to be part of the action now. Hogwarts' was really just a school-a magical school but a school nonetheless. Nothing ever really happened here, the most we had to worry about were our grades and I didn't even care about that. My parents had questioned me after finding out that I'd barely scrapped by last year with straight E's. They were curious as to why I didn't have straight O's when I spent most of my time working with them and studying, but they did understand that I just didn't feel like it. I think that they were just content with me enjoying myself, that and they were too preoccupied with examining Rowena Ravenclaw's diadem.

I had debated whether or not to actually give it to them or to wait until Harry's second year to get the Basilisk's fang to destroy it. I knew that the discovery of a horcrux wasn't something that they would take lightly, they would want to know exactly how I'd found it. I didn't even bother to lie to them, I told them everything; minus the part of me knowing the future and my reincarnation. So I basically just told them that I'd stumbled upon the room of requirement and found it inside; it wasn't hard to believe that I would take it home to study it upon feeling them power emanating from it, it was something they would've done as well.

It took them some time but they were eventually able to find out whose soul it belonged to by Christmas. It certainly sent a chill down their spines to find out that one of the darkest wizards in wizarding history had split himself into seven pieces. They'd immediately called an emergency meeting with the Clock Tower, not wanting to waste any time.

Which brought me to my current situation. An official meeting had been called at the headquarters- most commonly known as Big Ben; all the Heads of the Division of the Clock tower had been called forth to the meeting and even Dumbledore had been asked to attend. The meeting was-of course-to bring forth the existence of the Horcrux, as well as the evidence gathered by the Dantalian family of Tom Marvolo Riddle being Lord Voldemort. I wasn't actually supposed to be here, but it was my right as the one who discovered the horcrux to be present and make a statement. The rest of the meeting would be handled by the actual members, so I'd only be a spectator.

There were eight division heads in total. I knew that my mother was the head of Charms and Enchantments; Dad was the head of the Mystic Arts like Astronomy and Divination; Sakura was the head of Potions and Herbology; and Ted Tonks was the head of Magical Artifacts, which included Wards and Runes. There was also the founder, Zelretch. He was most commonly known as the Kaleidoscope, he was a master of magecraft, rivaling even Merlin.

I felt a hand on my shoulder and looked up to meet my dad's gaze. He gave me a reassuring look, and I took that as a signal to steel myself and walk in.

All sorts of magics had gone into making the Clock Tower into one of the most secure and well-guarded places in the world; it was on par with Hogwarts, but not quite on the level of the Dantalian Manor. The organization and consequently Big Ben itself had been founded by Zelretch and some of my ancestors around 300 years ago in order for mages to have a place to research without the restrictions of the ministry. The room where the meeting was being held was located at the very top of Big Ben. It had been heavily magicked in order for the room to appear empty of the clock's mechanisms, consisting instead of a polished wooden floor and wooden walls with intricate patterns on them. At the center of the room, right in front of the giant clock window, there was a round table with eleven seats.

"Hey guys!" greeted the Kaleidoscope himself from his seat right in front of the clock window. He was a strongly built man with a graying beard and hair as well as red eyes; giving him an intimidating look, "You can just sign in on that sheet right there, it's so that no one goes around telling everyone what we're going to talk about today!"

Oh yeah, that's right. I'd forgotten that the Kaleidoscope was known for his eccentricity; that would certainly make things easier.

"What's up Zelretch!" called Morte from his place on my shoulder, "Haven't seen you in a while."

"You're looking good Morte, we have a lot to catch up on." acknowledged the man with a smile on his face.

I saw mom and dad sign their names on the sheet and motion me to do the same, the paper had the names and divisions of everyone present and read as follows:

_I hereby vow to not speak of the events that will transpire in this meeting without the express approval of the Kaleidoscope or the majority of the present party._

**The Kaleidoscope:** Kischur Zelretch Schweinorg

**Head of Defense:** Remus Lupin

**Head of Enforcers:** Shiki Tohno

**Head of the Mystic Arts:** Asuka Dantalian

**Head of Transfiguration:** Zara Greengrass

**Head of Magical Artifacts:** Edward Tonks

**Head of Potions and Herbology:** Sakura Dantalian

**Head of Enchanting and Charms:** Rin Dantalian

**Head of Magical Creatures:** Merem Solomon

**Concerned Party:** Albus Dumbledore

**Witness:** Dalian Dantalian

I wrote my name on the witness section and was genuinely surprised that Remus was part of the Clock Tower. Then again I probably shouldn't have seeing as how Lily Potter herself had been a part of the organization, she'd never made it to head of division though seeing as she had to go into hiding and died shortly afterwards.

I took a seat between my parents, signaling the start of the meeting.

"Sooo…Voldemort's alive." stated Zelretch, as if he were talking about the weather.

"Called it!" exclaimed the head of the enforcers, Shiki Tohno. He was one of the youngest in the room, aside from Sakura, and was very lean with short dark hair and eyes which were covered by his circular glasses. Everyone started pulling out money from their pockets and exchanging it amongst themselves at that. It seemed that some kind of bet had been going on, and Shiki had profited the most from it.

"So he did find out about it." mused Dumbledore to himself.

"The little Dantalian did." corrected an amused Zelretch.

"Who the hell are you calling a midget!?" I shouted at him, making him and the others laugh. I'd already become acquainted with most of them, the only ones that I didn't really know yet were Merem and Remus. I didn't know Zelretch that well either, but he seemed alright.

"He has created multiple Horcruxes in order to ensure his own survival." continued Zelretch, "Dalian here found one of the artifacts containing a piece of his soul in Hogwarts."

Dumbledore perked up at this, "That's impossible; I have not felt any dark powers from inside the castle since…"

"Since Tom Riddle left the grounds for good." said mom.

Dad then placed the diadem in the middle of the table for all to see, "This, ladies and gentlemen, is only one of seven horcruxes created by Tom Marvolo Riddle, most commonly known as Lord Voldemort."

"Is that the lost diadem of Rowena Ravenclaw?" inquired Ted Tonks, his blond hair and beard as scruffy as ever, as he looked more closely at the item.

"Yes," answered mom, "Dalian found it in a room at Hogwarts that shifts its' interior and contents to meet the user's desires. Asuka and I have been studying this past year and just recently managed to determine the source of the soul."

"Based on the man's psyche it wouldn't be farfetched to assume that he would insert a part of his soul inside an artifact belonging to each of the founders." said Zara Greengrass, she cut quite an intimidating figure with her regal looks. But her likeable personality made her blonde hair and blue eyes soften her features, though she did know how to intimidate others if the situation called for it.

"May I?" Shiki asked Zelretch, picking up the diadem with his gloved hands at the man's positive response. He took off his glasses then, being careful to keep his eyes on the diadem, "I can see the soul fragment inside of it. It shouldn't be a problem for me to kill it since its death stands out like a black spot on a white wall."

"That solves that." commented Zelretch, "But there is still something else that Merem brought to my attention during tea-time last week. Harry Potter."

"Yes," said Merem Solomon. He was an enigma, it was common knowledge that both he and Zelretch were vampires, and it showed with their youthful looks despite being older than the organization itself. He had shoulder length straight black hair, and dark purple eyes; he was also apparently known for his amiable disposition, which proved useful when dealing with other creatures, "I have conducted an investigation on the events that led to Voldemort's fall, and consequently the death of the Potters, and have found the existence of a prophecy that foretold the defeat of the Dark Lord himself at the hands of a child born at the death of that year's seventh month. Namely the child known as Harry Potter."

"Neville Longbottom was also born on that date." added Sakura with a worried look. "That must be why Voldemort attacked Alice and Frank Longbottom."

"Precisely." agreed Merem, "We know that Neville Longbottoms safety is accounted for, seeing as he spends most of his time at the Dantalian Manor. However, Harry Potter's welfare has not been prioritized since his parent's death."

Dumbledore sighed at this, "His mother used all of her magic to create a strong protection for him as long as he is near a blood relative. He is protected and well cared for."

"No he is not." said Merem with a dark look on his face, "I spent a week tailing him and his Muggle family on Zelretch's orders and they were horrible to him. He wears his spoiled cousin's old and stretched clothes and he is made to do all the housework."

"He is being protected." argued Dumbledore, "He will grow unspoiled from all the attention that he would've gotten as a child."

Merem ground his teeth at this, "They lock him inside a cupboard Albus, they barely even feed him. Not once did I hear them refer to him by name, they always called him 'Freak'"

"You must take into-" started Albus.

"ENOUGH!" shouted Zelretch, "You guys are giving me a headache. The fact still stands that no matter what you say, Dumbledore, you screwed up. Now I'm not going to judge you, it was an honest mistake. But you have to accept it, it doesn't matter what you think though since the Dantalians have already agreed to take him in. No offense to Lily, but I'm pretty sure that her son will be better protected in that manor. Not even the Clock Tower is as well protected as those cheeky bastards."

Mom gave him a smirk at this and said "It would be our pleasure to take him in. As a matter of fact, a few of our family members should be picking him up right about now."

* * *

**Meanwhile, at Privet Drive…**

**(3****rd**** Person Point of View)**

* * *

"Okay guys, this was a direct mission from the bosses so we can't screw this up." stated Bardroy seriously. "We will show courage, we will show pride, and we will show them that the Dantalians are not to be messed with!"

May and Finny were hanging on to his every word as the three of them crouched behind the bushes in front of the house where their target lived. The words 'utmost secrecy' and 'finesse' had been emphasized a lot during their meeting with Rin. Asuka hadn't said much during that time since he was reading a book but they knew that he had placed his trust on them (he hadn't, in fact he was taking a nap and only woke up when he heard his wife cackle madly at her own evil genius,she knew they would go overboard and give the Dursleys hell).

"Now let's go!" shouted the man.

They immediately set forth towards the house in a single file line while they marched military style. Many of the neighbors watched the trio in curiosity, and some of them even had their phones at the ready in case they turned out to be loons.

The three stared at the door in fear, not one of them daring to knock.

"…so, who's gonna knock?" Finny asked fearfully, only to look back and notice that his companions had run back to the bushes and left him alone, "That's not fair!"

He took a huge gulp and slowly raised his arm to the door, knocking three times on it while silently praying that no one would answer.

The door opened almost instantly though, and a pleasant-looking lady opened the door with a smile on her face, "Hello, how may I help you?"

"Uhmmm, I'm-uh, I'm looking for Petunia Dursley." he said nervously, you never knew with strangers.

"I'm sorry dear." said the woman, "I'm Mrs. Smith, the Dursleys live three houses to your left from here."

Finny let out a sigh at this "Thank you anyways ma'am."

Mrs. Smith bid him farewell as he made his way to the right house while making gestures to the others. They seemed to understand what he meant and did a roll to move to the next bushes over. May accidentally rolled with too much force though and ended up all the way down the street.

Finny sweatdropped at that and once more took a gulp before knocking on the right door.

"Who are you?" asked the thin, blonde woman who opened the door.

"My-uh name is Finny, I'm looking for Petunia Dursley." he stumbled with his words, realizing that the woman was sizing him up.

"I'm Petunia Dursley, are you here with the package that I ordered?" she asked.

"Wh-what package?" answered Finny, Rin hadn't mentioned anything about a package.

"The one with Duddlykins' gift!" she said exasperatedly.

"No, I'm actually-uh looking for Harry Potter." Finny clarified.

Petunia reacted peculiarly at this, giving him a glare that made him flinch and starting to close the door until May jumped in out of nowhere holding her rifle to the woman's face.

"Come on Finny! You look in the cupboard and I'll look in the kitchen while May holds the hag down!" shouted Bardroy as he made his way in.

"What the hell do you think you're doing to my wife!" shouted a round man as he ran towards them, intent on freeing his wife.

His charge was cut short though as a bullet whizzed past his head.

"One more move and you're done for." stated May darkly, she'd taken off her glasses since she was actually nearsighted and aimed her rifle right at him.

"Is this the boy?" asked Bardroy as he carried a plump boy as one would a barrel.

"No! Don't harm my Diddykins!" yelled Petunia.

"I don't think so." answered May as she put her glasses back in place, "Miss Rin said that he had a lightning bolt scar on his forehead."

Bardroy dropped the boy unceremoniously on the floor at that.

"I found him!" announced Finny as he led a small boy to them by the hand, "He says he's Harry Potter, and he even has the scar to match!"

"Mission accomplished." they all grinned as the Dursleys cowered in fear.

* * *

**...Back at the Clock Tower...**

* * *

"Rin, Asuka may I have a word with you?" asked Remus as he approached us, he had been very quiet throughout the meeting and I could tell that it bothered him that he hadn't helped Harry.

"Sure," said dad, "I guess you want to talk about Harry."

"Precisely." answered Remus.

"Dalian, will you go to Sakura?" asked mom, I knew that they trusted me; it was more out of respect to Remus that they asked me to leave.

"Actually, I wanted to have a little chat with Dalian myself." chimed in Zelretch.

They looked at me for my response and I merely gave a shrug; I man really, who the hell would say no to the Kaleidoscope?

We chatted while we made our way to his office, and I found out that he and Morte had actually been friends during a time when the talking skull had been human. It was like exchanging embarrassing stories about one's kid. His office was pretty cool; he had all sorts of trinkets and magical artifacts placed throughout the room with a mahogany desk at the center.

"You know I'm not from this world don't you." I asked him nonchalantly. It wasn't that hard to guess seeing how powerful he was.

"Yup." he answered just as uncaring, "I also know about the books."

I raised a brow at that, "Then why didn't you do anything about it? As a matter of fact why wasn't the Clock Tower mentioned at all?"

"Well, I did try…" he said, "But no matter how powerful I am, the world itself fights against my interference. You're different though, you've made changes."

I gave him a look, "You saw just now just what you're capable of Dalian. It was your birth in this dimension that started it all the Clock Tower, the Dantalians, even me. I was not allowed into this world until you opened the gate for me."

"You aren't from this world either?" I asked curiously.

"I was, originally." he smiled, "But I invented the Kaleidoscope, the device which allows me to travel to other dimensions. The world didn't like the fact that I had so much power, especially after I slayed a powerful vampire who turned me, and it shut me out as soon as I learned of this world's future."

"But it wasn't that bad." I argued, "Sure, a lot of people die, but Harry saves the world in the end."

He shook his head at that, "Do you really think that all it took to defeat Voldemort was the elder wand? I mean, I could buy it if it had been me. But not even Dumbledore had been able to defeat Voldemort with or without Horcruxes. The end, I fear, is much darker than you think."

"I'm just a little girl though; hell I'd start puking blood right now if I had to do a patronus." I grudgingly admitted.

"We'll work on that." he said in a chipper manner, "I was thinking of making you my apprentice."

"Fuck no!" I shouted, "I know that you're a monster with your pupils. Didn't your last one end up in a wheelchair?"

"Are you saying that you're too weak?" he said, trying to rile me up.

"That trick won't work on me." I stated dryly.

"I've got candy."

My eye twitched.

"Lots of candy."

I could feel a bead of sweat make its' way down my forehead.

"It's imported…from other dimensions."

"Ok! I'm in!"

* * *

**A/N: **In case you're wondering, no this isn't a bashing fic. What Zelretch said to Dumbledore basically sums up my thoughts about that whole thing. Also, I changed Zelretch's background from Nasuverse in order for it to be more fitting with this story, he still defeats a powerful vampire, but it wasn't Type Moon it was just a really powerful vampire from the Potterverse which Merem had no relationship with so he and Zelretch have a decent relationship here. I just felt that incorporating the actual Nasuverse rather would be too muchof a headache. **Pictures from the characters introduced in this chapter are up on my profile!**


	8. Choice

**A/N: **Well, now that the big reveal has past, I'll now alternate from Dalian's perspective (1st person) to Harry's perspective (3rd person). There's mostly only Harry's perspective in this chapter though, enjoy!

**_Happy Late Thanksgiving!_**

**Chapter 8: **Choice

* * *

**Dalian**

* * *

"Oh Merlin! The horror!" shouted Shiki as Zelretch told those present at the meeting that I would become his apprentice.

They all had different reactions, ranging from shock to amusement to outright laughter in the case of mom.

"I bet he bribed you with sweets!" mom exclaimed as she started calming down a bit, "Good luck to you though; my apprenticeship under Zelretch had to have been one of the best and worst decisions in my life."

"You're scaring her Rin," said dad with a smile, "There's no need for her to know of all the broken bones and trips to the hospital that you had to go through. Didn't he switch your gender once?"

I paled at that, "Is that true?"

"Of course not!" laughed Zelretch, "I did it five times!"

"Saku-chan, help me!" I cried out.

"Sorry Dalian, at least you'll have fun…well he'll have fun, I'm not so sure about you." she pondered.

I sweatdropped at that, even Sakura had turned against me! I risked a look at Ted and Merem, but they were both trying to do their best to look anywhere but at me. I didn't even bother with Shiki; he had been the one of the first ones to start laughing their asses off.

"I guess I have no choice, I did agree to it after all…" I said, resigned to my fate.

"You'll be alright Dalian." Zara tried to reassure me but even she knew that it wouldn't work, "Come on Remus, help me out here!"

"…chocolate?" offered the man.

I immediately accepted the chocolate bar with a quick thanks, making Remus give a sigh of relief as I happily took my seat.

* * *

**Harry**

* * *

He hadn't known what to think when the blond man had opened the door to his little cupboard. He'd expected his aunt Petunia or his uncle Vernon to greet him with a sneer and the list of chores for the day, not the ditzy looking boy with the friendly smile on his face. He had introduced himself as Finny and had been very polite, even going so far as to apologize for the intrusion. It had made Harry feel good to be treated in such a way, not as a waste of space or a hooligan but more like an…equal.

So it came as no surprise that he chose to go along with him and his strange two companions, a girl with deep red hair named May and a muscular blond man named Bardroy. They had left in a weird way though, with all of them having to touch a fountain pen which gave him a tugging feeling after the words 'Home' were said. He closed his eyes when that happened though, so he'd been surprised when he opened them to see that they were now in a forest.

"Man, I wish it would just take us directly to the manor." sighed Bardroy.

Finny and May had similar defeated looks as they looked at the long way they had to travel.

Harry's face heated up as his stomach chose that moment to give a loud growl, "…Sorry."

"Haven't you eaten yet? It's like, twelve already." said a flabbergasted Bardroy.

"Uh, no." answered Harry.

"We'll have to fix that." mused May, "I'll whip you up a feast!"

Finny got excited at that, "Oooh, we should have those pancakes with the smiley faces on them."

"Isn't it too late for pancakes?" asked Bardroy.

May and Finny turned on him, giving horrified looks "You should be ashamed of yourself! It's never too late for pancakes!"

Harry couldn't help but to laugh as he watched them argue over food, so far this day was proving to be really fun.

* * *

**Dalian**

* * *

"So which one would you choose?" I asked Remus as we made our way to the kitchen in the Dantalian Manor after having split up with Sakura and Merem, who wanted to check up on Harry "A Snicker's, a Butterfinger, a Twix, or a Kitkat?"

He stroked his chin as if in deep thought, "So no Tootsie Rolls or Three Musketeers?"

I shook my head, "No. You've woken up in an abandoned island, and all you could eat is one of the three choices."

"Well, in that case I guess I would choose… the Snicker's bar." he said.

I smirked at him, "Good choice. I would go with the Twix, but it would really depend in my mood at the time."

"There was no wrong answer, was there?" asked dad.

"Of course not! It's chocolate we're talking about here!" I answered him.

"You would die from thirst right afterwards anyways." said mom, "Especially you Dalian, you would've been too busy trying to decide on a chocolate bar to worry about survival."

"At least I'd die happily." I shrugged.

She facepalmed while dad chuckled at my nonchalance. I looked at Remus to see what he was doing, and found him staring at a young boy sitting at the breakfast table. They boy seemed to be trying to politely tell May to stop bringing him food, poor soul.

"I think Harry is full now." said mom when she saw what was happening.

"Oh! Are you Harry?" asked May, "I'm sorry! I got carried away."

"It's alright May, really." he reassured, "I just wasn't that hungry."

May tried to pick up all the plates at once, dropping them all when she tried to move "Sorry!"

Mom sighed and waved her wand in order to cast a wandless _reparo_ on the plates, making Harry's eyes widen in surprise "Don't worry May, could you get Tanaka for me please?"

"Sure thing boss!" exclaimed the girl.

"I'll help you out May." said dad as he started picking up plates.

"Order up!" called out Finny as he came out of the kitchen with a tray full of pancakes.

"He's not hungry anymore Finny." said May, now only carrying a small amount of plates at once.

"Then what do I do with these?" asked Finny.

I approached him, "We'll take care of those for you."

I pounced on the pancakes and began eating them rapidly. Remus followed at a more sedate pace, though his eyes still lingered on Harry.

"You must be Harry," said mom as she approached the boy, "I'm Rin Dantalian and the man helping May is my husband, Asuka Dantalian."

He looked a bit nervous but relaxed when mom gave him a smile, "This right here," she said while pointing at me, "Is my daughter Dalian. And the man seated next to her is your godfather, Remus Lupin."

"Nice to meet you." he said as he got up and shook our hands.

"It's nice to finally meet you Harry," said Remus, "You look just like your father, but you have your mother's eyes."

"So…how did you like those pancakes? Weren't they the best?" I asked Harry, trying to lighten up the mood.

He smiled, "Yeah, they were delicious."

"Bardroy's cooking is delicious, even if his cooking methods are a bit odd." said mom, "Dalian, why don't you take Harry with you to the Greenhouse? I'm sure Sakura and Merem would like to meet him."

I sighed contentedly as I finished the last of my pancakes and started gathering the dirty plates in order to take them to the kitchen, with Harry following suit, "Alright, let's go Harry. We'll cut through the kitchen in order to drop these off."

"Have fun you two!" called mom as we left the room, "Now Remus, about Harry…"

* * *

**Harry**

* * *

"Hey Bardroy!" shouted Dalian, trying to be heard over the chainsaw that the man was using in order to cut through some meat.

He stopped when he heard it, but replied with an equally loud "What is it shorty!?"

"Don't call me short you damn giant!" said an annoyed Dalian, "Where do we put these plates?"

He looked at her like she was an idiot, "In the sink?"

Harry moved a bit to the side as the girl shifted the plates onto one hand and extended her free one in order to point out the overflowing sink.

"…I'll get to it eventually, just put them on the space next to the sink. Have you seen Finny?" he asked.

"He's probably trying to find Tanaka with May." said Dalian as she and Harry placed the dirty plates on their assigned spot.

He huffed in annoyance "I guess I'll really have to do it then. Where are you guys going?"

"We're going to the greenhouse." she told him as she put her hands in her jean pockets.

"Well in that case," he said, retrieving a pen from his pocket, "Can you take this to Sakura for me? I lost my portkey so I had to borrow hers."

"Alright then, but mom will be pissed if you don't find yours." she warned him, making him shudder at the prospect of facing Rin's wrath.

They left then, through a door that led to their backyard, in order to get to the greenhouse.

Harry was still puzzled by the pen though, and couldn't help but to ask "What does that pen do?"

"It's technically a portkey, a method for wizards to magically teleport across large distances." she explained, "This one's been modified though, mom and dad made it so it doesn't give the uncomfortable feeling that is associated with portkeys, plus it has more than one use to saved locations."

His eyes widened at the word 'magic', "So they were using magic, is that what happened with the plates earlier?"

"You're kidding me right." she deadpanned, making Harry's cheeks redden in embarrassment "Didn't May and the others tell you what you are?"

"Not really, they started making me food as soon as we got to the manor." he said sheepishly.

"Well…You're a wizard." she told him straightforwardly, "You can do magic…and stuff. You know what? I'm not that good at explaining this; you'll have to ask mom or dad to elaborate."

He sweatdropped at her words, "But I've never done magic."

"Oh really? Never changed hair color? Made something explode?" she said with a raised brow.

Harry felt a bit queasy when he realized that he'd done just that, "So that was all magic."

She nodded, "Yup, those instances were kind of like signals that were meant to let you know that you're a wizard or not."

"So it's by chance?"

"No, it's by birth. Your parents were both magical, it would have also worked if only one of them had been magical; and there are also the ones that are born from completely nonmagical families." she said, "There are those who don't have magic though; like May, Finny, Bardroy, Tanaka, and Sakura."

He felt a bit sad to find that out, he already liked the one's he'd met, and it sucked to think that they were missing out on something that fun.

"Don't feel so down. It's not like they're dying or anything." reasoned Dalian, "They're actually really successful people, and they're awesome. Don't tell them I said that though."

He smiled; "Thanks Dalian, I just have one more question though." he sobered up as he said that, "Why am I here?"

"It's not my place to say," she answered him as they finally neared the greenhouse, "You're not going back to the Dursley's though, that's for sure."

He relaxed a bit when he heard that, he'd feared that they would just take him back to the Dursley's when the day was over. Not that they seemed like the kind of people to do that.

"Hmm, there's something odd about you Harry…" She muttered, examining him closely, "Aren't your clothes a little loose?"

"Umm…they're alright." he said nervously.

She gave herself a facepalm and pulled out a thin stick, she then started waving it around and muttered something while pointing at him. Harry could almost immediately feel his clothes adjusting to a more comfortable fit, and he was surprised to see himself wearing what looked to be brand-new clothes and shoes.

"Whoa!" he gasped.

She gave him a satisfied smile, "I know right? Being a kid in a pureblooded family does have its perks, especially when it comes to underage magic."

They entered the greenhouse and Harry's eyes widened when he saw all of the plants it had inside. There were so many colors and smells; he couldn't even recognize most of them. The room looked even more surreal with the light coming in from the glass. The room was gigantic; it was way bigger than it looked on the outside. He wondered if it was magic that did that as well.

"Dalian is that you?" asked a young woman as she approached them. She was wearing a flowing skirt with a light sweater, and had shoulder-length purple hair with a pink ribbon on the side.

She was accompanied by a young boy wearing a white tunic with gold lining over a pair of black slacks, "Look Sakura, she brought Harry with her!" he said as he moved some of his shoulder-length black hair away from his face.

"That's great! How're you doing Harry? My name is Sakura Dantalian, I'm Rin's sister." she told him softly as she enveloped hi in a hug.

He was surprised by her show of affection, but he found that he quite liked it.

"It's nice to see you here Harry," said the boy, "I'm Merem Solomon, but everybody just calls me Merem. I'm a vampire."

"That's…nice" said Harry, confused by the boy's straightforwardness.

"Merem, you shouldn't just throw important information like that around." chided Sakura, "He's already gone through a lot already."

"Oops, sorry Harry. I won't suck your blood or anything." he reassured.

"Don't be fooled Harry, he's actually an old geezer under that young body of his." said Dalian as she smirked at Merem, "Almost as old as Zelretch, now there's an old fart!"

She and Merem shared a high high-five while Sakura just shook her head. "I almost forgot, Neville's here. He's got exciting news too."

"Where is he? I've got to introduce Harry to him." asked Dalian.

"He's further back, taking care of some plants." she told her, "Have fun guys."

"Yeah, I'll see you two later. I'm staying for dinner." waved Merem as he and\ Sakura made their way out of the greenhouse.

Dalian and Harry waved back, making their way further inside the greenhouse "I think you and Neville are going to get along pretty well. He's the same age as you."

"Aren't we the same age?" asked Harry.

She shook her head at him, "Just because I'm a little on the short side doesn't mean I'm a kid!"

"She sure acts like one though." said a brown-haired boy while he was watering some plants with a blue watering can, "You wouldn't be able to tell but she's actually two years older than us."

He stopped watering the plants, and turned to face them, "I'm Neville Longbottom by the way. I'd shake your hand but mine are dirty."

Harry gave him a smile, "No problem, I'm Harry Potter."

"The Boy Who Lived? Wow, didn't think I'd ever get to meet you." mused Neville.

Harry was puzzled by the whole 'Boy Who Lived' thing, but he figured he'd be told about it later. It was seriously not the weirdest thing he'd seen all day.

"Aren't you supposed to be all shy and clumsy?" asked Dalian, "Where did I go wrong? Don't look at him Harry, he's an impostor!"

The raven-haired boy decided to play along and cover his eyes, gaining a groan from Neville "Don't encourage her Harry, she does this every time she sees me; and I'm here almost every day."

She shook her fist at him, "Spoilsport. So what was it that you wanted to tell us?"

"Oh yeah!" he snapped his fingers, "I had a burst of magic yesterday at my family reunion when I was thrown out of a window."

Dalian burst out laughing "You say that like it was nothing."

Harry, for his part, had paled a little "Is that what I'll have to do?"

"Err, no." Neville said sheepishly, "My family's a little eccentric."

They spent the rest of the afternoon playing around the backyard and giving Harry the rundown of how the magical world worked. It made Harry happy to have finally made some friends, even if they were a little weird. Neville and Dalian were like siblings, and they made sure to make him feel like a part of their group. It was like a breath of fresh air. He'd almost gotten a heart attack when he saw Morte though, but he got used to it over time; it did help that the skull was pretty cool and didn't try to kill him like he'd initially thought. Dalian would never let him live that one down.

It got dark soon though, and it wasn't too long till they were called in for dinner. The day was officially ending now, and Harry felt himself feeling more and more anxious as the time passed.

Dinner was lively to say the least. Harry had finally gotten to meet the elusive Tanaka, the old man had a grandfatherly feel to him, though Harry could clearly see that he wasn't to be crossed. Not him or Rin's familiar, Ajax, the leopard had taken an instant liking to him though and behaved more like a cat than anything. Everyone was seated around the table and they all had a good time telling Harry stories of their jobs in the Clock Tower, whose purpose Asuka had thankfully explained to him.

"Harry, we have something to tell you." said Rin after she got the room to quiet down.

His hands started shaking under the table, 'There it is', he thought, 'They're going to take me back now.'

"We, the members of the Clock Tower, have been discussing your living arrangements and we'd like to offer you some choices," she continued, "One of them is for you to go back to the Dursleys, only if you want to. You could also live in the Clock Tower with highly skilled trainers, with your own wing in the building, or you could just stay here. Unfortunately, Remus isn't able to take you in due to a condition of his; but know this: regardless of whatever choice you make, we'll keep regular contact with you. So you don't have to feel obligated to remain here just because you want to see us."

"I…"

His throat felt dry, even at the young age of eleven he knew that the choice he made today would shape his entire life. But was that even a question? Wasn't the answer obvious?

"…I want to live here."


End file.
